Brand Analysis
Every strategy begins with the question of what is actually the case. A brand analysis answers it — and it answers it for the market in question, not for the one in which the measurement model was built.
Brand analysis:
the status quo as a starting point.
A brand analysis precedes brand strategy. This holds even when a brand is being built from scratch — in that case the brand analysis addresses the market, the competing brands and the dimensions along which that market draws distinctions at all.
Lünstroth works with the brand personality model established by Aaker and Keller in the 1990s. The assessment itself, however, is not a standard procedure: the methods of the brand analysis are adapted to product, usage context and region.
Classical market research is complemented by the digital dimension — visibility, search behaviour, discoverability in algorithmically mediated channels. A brand that does not appear there does not exist for a growing share of its audience. A brand analysis that omits this measures yesterday's picture.
Typical occasions for a brand analysis
- — Before repositioning: evidence rather than assumptions as the starting point
- — Market entry: which brand dimensions actually decide in this region?
- — Ahead of an acquisition: what is the target company's brand worth?
- — Perception diverging between country markets
- — A gap between the intended self-image and actual external perception
- — Declining pricing power with no identifiable cause in the product
Why a brand analysis
must differentiate by region.
The common models for measuring brand personality originate in the US market, where they were developed and validated. Anglo-Saxon literature generally treats them as universally applicable.
They are not. Which attributes are ascribed to a brand at all, and which of them carry a purchasing decision, differs considerably between cultural contexts. Applying a US model unchanged to a European or Asian market reliably measures dimensions that play no role there — and misses the ones that matter.
For companies operating across several country markets this has an immediate consequence: a brand equity figure collected uniformly across all regions is not comparability, it is an artefact of the instrument. A brand analysis must be differentiated by region before the results are consolidated.
The same framework,
different dimensions.
Aaker's five dimensions of brand personality were developed in the US market. The follow-up study in Japan and Spain shows what happens when the same framework is applied elsewhere: two dimensions disappear, two others take their place.
After Aaker (1997) and Aaker, Benet-Martínez & Garolera (2001). Shown is which dimensions emerge empirically in each cultural context — not how strongly they are expressed.
Brand analysis:
the Lünstroth approach.
Defining the scope of the brand analysis
Which brand dimensions are relevant in the markets concerned, and which instruments capture them? Adaptation to product, usage context and region comes before the fieldwork — not after it.
Brand audit across all touchpoints
Systematic review of presence, language, product presentation, distribution and service. What is recorded is where the brand contradicts itself and where it holds — benchmarked against the relevant competing brands.
Assessment across stakeholder groups
Customers, trade partners, employees, investors. Qualitative and quantitative assessment separated by group and region — with the aim of quantifying the gap between the intended and the actual brand image.
The digital dimension of the brand analysis
Discoverability, search behaviour, representation in algorithmically mediated channels. What questions do prospects ask before they approach a company — and does the brand appear in the answers?
Findings and consequences
Consolidation into findings that can carry decisions: what is evidenced, what remains open, what follows for the brand strategy. Without this step a brand analysis remains material rather than a foundation.
What the brand analysis measures
The gap between self-image and external perception
Schematic illustration of the evaluation principle. The actual dimensions and values follow from the respective assessment.
Brand equity is an outcome
of the brand analysis.
The term brand value is used in two senses that need to be kept apart. One is brand valuation for accounting purposes — a monetary figure of the kind a transaction, a licensing agreement or a legal dispute requires. The other is brand equity: the difference that knowledge of a brand makes to customer behaviour.
Lünstroth assesses the latter. It is not a separate project but an outcome of the brand analysis: awareness, the nature and strength of associations, and the willingness to pay a premium for the brand together establish what a brand carries in the market — and in which regions it does not.
A formal brand valuation builds on these findings but is a discipline of its own, with its own standards. Where it is required, the brand analysis supplies the foundation — and Lünstroth states which further steps are necessary.
Brand analysis
as the first step.
Each of the following mandates began with a brand analysis. The findings determined which strategy was available afterwards.
Automotive Supplier
Aftermarket Brand Management After a Mega-Merger
What was assessed: which reputation attaches to which brand regionally — and how much of it is transferable.
Financial Services
Brand Integration After a Bank Acquisition
The analysis showed what attachment to the acquired brand existed — and where a switch would have cost customers.
Construction Industry
Brand Relaunch: Making a Technology Leader Visible
The finding: technical leadership in place, perception lagging behind it. That determined the strategy.
Retail Technology
Corporate Spin-Off: A Brand on Its Own Feet
The question was how much reputation rested on group affiliation and how much on the brand itself.
Automotive Supplier
Brand Separation: When One Brand Stretches Too Far
The brand analysis evidenced that two audiences were reading the same brand in irreconcilably different ways.
Why a measurement model
does not travel.
In 1997 Jennifer Aaker set out the framework that remains the most widely used to this day: brands are perceived along five dimensions — sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness. The study was developed in the US market.
Four years later Aaker, Benet-Martínez and Garolera tested the same framework in Japan and Spain. The result refutes the tacit assumption of universality: in Japan the ruggedness dimension does not appear — in its place stands a dimension best rendered as peacefulness. In Spain competence is absent; passion takes its place.
Kevin Lane Keller had already shown in 1993 that brand equity does not arise within the company but in the mind of the customer — out of awareness and the nature of associations. Both are culturally pre-shaped. Taken together the practical consequence for any brand analysis is this: the model is not the problem, its unaltered transfer is.
Five dimensions of brand personality
Aaker, 1997
Brands are perceived much as people are and can be described along five dimensions. The framework still underpins most brand equity assessments — developed and validated in the US market.
Journal of Marketing Research →The same brand, another culture
Aaker, Benet-Martínez & Garolera, 2001
Japan and Spain compared with the US market: two of the five dimensions do not appear, while others emerge. Brand personality is not a universal grid — it carries the culture in which it was measured.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology →Brand equity arises with the customer
Keller, 1993
Customer-based brand equity: the difference that knowledge of a brand makes to customer behaviour. What is measured is not what a company says about its brand, but what reaches the market.
Journal of Marketing →The practical consequence:
A brand equity figure collected uniformly across a group compares markets that were not measured comparably. Differentiation belongs in the assessment design — it cannot be introduced afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
about brand analysis.
What is a brand analysis?
A brand analysis systematically establishes how a brand is actually perceived — by customers, trade partners, employees and other stakeholder groups. It records the status quo along the dimensions that govern purchasing decisions in the market concerned and sets it against the company's own self-image. The result is a body of findings on which a brand strategy can be grounded.
What are the benefits of a brand analysis?
It replaces assumptions with evidence. Without a brand analysis, positioning decisions rest on the self-image of the management — and that regularly diverges from external perception. The analysis quantifies that gap, shows which brand attributes actually carry in the market, and reveals where a brand is read differently from region to region. It reduces the risk of investing in the wrong direction.
How does a brand analysis work?
In five steps: defining the scope of the assessment, a brand audit across all touchpoints, assessment across stakeholder groups, capture of the digital dimension, and finally consolidation into findings with consequences for the strategy. The first step matters most: it decides whether the right dimensions are being measured at all.
What methods does a brand analysis use?
Lünstroth combines qualitative and quantitative market research with the brand personality model established by Aaker and Keller. Added to this are competitive benchmarking, touchpoint evaluation and web-based methods for capturing the digital dimension. The instruments are adapted to product, usage context and region before fieldwork begins — standard questionnaires produce systematically distorted results in unfamiliar cultural contexts.
How does brand analysis differ from brand valuation?
A brand analysis assesses perception and derives brand equity from it: the effect of the brand on customer behaviour. A brand valuation additionally establishes a monetary figure of the kind required for accounting, licensing or legal proceedings. The analysis is the foundation; the valuation is a separate, formalised step built on it.
Why must a brand analysis be separated by country market?
Because the dimensions along which brands are perceived differ between cultures. The study by Aaker, Benet-Martínez and Garolera shows that the ruggedness dimension, central to the US model, does not appear in Japan, and that competence is absent in Spain. A single questionnaire applied across all regions therefore produces no comparability — only an artefact of the instrument.
How long does a brand analysis take?
That depends on the number of markets and stakeholder groups. An analysis covering one market and two audiences is robust within a few weeks; an assessment across several country markets with regionally adapted instruments takes correspondingly longer. Lünstroth agrees the scope with the client before the project begins — determined by the decision the findings are meant to support.
Do you know how your brand
is seen in your markets?
Lünstroth assesses the status quo of your brand — separated by country market and stakeholder group, with instruments suited to each market. The result is a body of findings you can decide on.